How to Sync Your iPod to Two Computers

La_clique recently posed an all too familiar question: I have a desktop PC with my iTunes library on it, but yesterday I bought a new laptop and wanted to be able to sync my iPod on there as well. Others have asked about managing multiple iPods on one computer, or dealing with controlling your music via your home Mac and a Windows PC at work. How does a geek manage his or her music without erasing their entire library?

For geeksugar's Guide to Syncing Your iPod to Multiple Computers, which is the first installment in a series of iPod How Tos, just

iPods were designed to automatically sync with one iTunes library, or one computer. Luckily, you can manually manage files on your iPod across multiple devices by: Displaying the iPod preferences and clicking the Manually manage music button. Then you can move files from any iTunes client to the iPod.

geeksugar Guide to Syncing Your iPod to Multiple Computers

Un-Networked Computers: Syncing two computers that are not connected via network (say your home and office computers), is relatively simple because iTunes is set by default to autosync with iPods. You must, however, be sure to switch to manual mode to avoid losing files.

Paid options include crispSofties’ $35 iPod.iTunes, which allows you to also transfer metadata along with songs and playlists, but iPod, and MP3tunes, which provides syncing tools and unlimited online storage space for all your music files for $40 a year. Remember that you can authorize only five computers at once to play songs purchased from the iTunes Music Store.

Networked Computers:
Synchronizing iTunes manually between computers can be a laborious task. Oligrob Software’s free syncOtunes 0.95 (3.5 mice) can ease this chore. It's designed to sync libraries and settings, provided that the computers involved can communicate directly over a network.

Future geeksugar Guides
Be on the lookout for next week's How to Sync iPods Across Platforms and How to Manage Multiple iPods on the Same Computer guides.

I've never owned an iPod, I have a Creative Zen mp3 player instead, and I always upload my media manually, although synching is an option. I just never understood what "synching" was, exactly. Does it automatically upload everything in your media library? I've been hesitant to do this since I listen to podcasts all the time while I work and I'm constantly changing what's loaded so I don't have weeks worth of podcasts loaded at once!